As Israel is in the grips of what has become daily Palestinian terror attacks, Jewish leaders are split over how to view and treat the terrorist perpetrators. The debate has been heightened over the recent release of new guidelines by the Israel Medical Association (IMA), which instruct medical and emergency personnel to treat the injured at the scene of a terror attack based on seriousness of injuries, regardless if the patient is a terrorist or victim.

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Rabbi [Shmuel] Eliyahu called for the Israeli courts to institute the death penalty for terrorists, saying recently: “We must not allow terrorists to survive their attacks. If you leave him alive, there is a fear that he will be released and kill other people.”

The fear of imprisoned terrorists being released to attack again is very real. Israel has released a total of more than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 19 Israelis and the bodies of eight others, most notably in the 2011 exchange for Gilad Shalit, when they released 1,027 convicted Palestinians, some of whom went on to kill more Israelis.

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Rabbi Yitzchak Brand, a respected Jewish legal authority from the city of Emanuel, argues that since the Palestinian terrorists are trying to kill Jews, it is a wartime setting and usual legal measures no longer apply. He adds that the policy of Magen David Adom, Israel’s EMS unit, to treat a critically-wounded terrorist before a seriously-wounded Jewish victim is yet another reason to kill the terrorist since he may be the cause of the innocent Jew not getting the care he needs, and possibly dying.